Virgil Wander

Jerry Fandeen, Ann’s husband, visits Virgil at the Empress to confirm that Adam Leer wants to hire him. Jerry also tells Virgil that he came to collect his socket set, which he lent him some time ago. Virgil suspects Jerry is lying, but he also can’t trust his memory now, so he takes Jerry down to the basement, where he stores his tools, and gives him one of three socket sets he owns. Jerry doesn’t trust Adam Leer, believing the stories about him to be accurate, but he needs the work. Jerry was once a blast technician for a mining crew in the taconite mine. He began drinking on the job, and after he fell asleep at the wheel of a dump truck, he lost the respect of his coworkers and his wife. Virgil empathizes with Jerry and allows him to take more tools from his collection.

Rune arrives at the Empress with a bag full of delicious food. He cooks hash for him and Virgil, and they have pie and chocolate afterward. While enjoying a glass of akevitt, Rune tells Virgil his story. Rune came to Florida in 1964 when he was 23 because of an “affliction.” After buying a car to drive West, he stopped in Duluth and slept at the YMCA, where he met young boys flying a kite near the waterfront. Rune met a beautiful girl named Roberta at a bookstore. The two fell in love, but Rune loved Roberta more, and she told him to return to Norway. Rune never knew he had fathered a son with Roberta. In Norway, he married Sophie, but they never had any children. After Sophie died, and Rune’s sister died shortly after, he began to consider that he was “the final post in the fence” (86). Six weeks ago, Rune received a letter from an attorney informing him of Roberta’s death and that he had a son.

Rune’s story of unrequited love reminds Virgil of a movie, and he listens raptly. He is saddened to hear that Rune learned he had a son and immediately realized he was dead. Rune doesn’t consider his love with Roberta a tragedy, because it gave him Sophie. Virgil asks what Rune’s “affliction” is, but Rune doesn’t answer and says it’s time to retire for the night.

After a night plagued with strange dreams, including one in which he became rain, Virgil awakened for the day with a bad hangover. Virgil took Rune to The Wise Old for lunch because the owner, Lou Chandler, knew Alec well. Lou’s bar is next to an airstrip and a hangar with an airplane. Lou tells Rune that Alec wanted what everyone wants, “The sky, you know? The broad reach. The great wide open” (96). Alec traded sign work for flying lessons from Lou.

Shad Pea arrives at the bar along with Adam Leer. Their tone is tense. Virgil later explains their feud to Rune. Despite being denied permission, Shad collected sap from Adam’s trees to make syrup. Adam found a leftover spile—the small tube driven into a maple tree to collect sap—and confronted Shad. He offered to buy the syrup but later stopped the check payment and warned Shad about potential prosecution for trespassing.

Virgil skips work to join Rune in flying the dog kite. A small crowd gathers around him, including Shad and Galen Pea, and members of the community share stories of Adam. Virgil marvels at how Rune and his kite have drawn people together in childlike wonder. Shad is shaky and quiet, but when Rune lets him fly the kite, he relaxes into the joyful moment.

Back at the Empress, Rune tells Virgil that most people in town believe that Adam either drowned after his plane crashed or disappeared. Virgil has never believed the disappearance theory because he knows Adam would have never abandoned Nadine and Bjorn. Rune says Shad believes Adam was murdered when someone intentionally tampered with the plane, causing it to crash. Virgil suggests that Shad isn’t the most “reliable” person in town, though he feels bad for saying it. Rune’s mood is low, so Virgil offers to show him Adam’s favorite movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Rune loves not just the movie but the entire theater experience. Showing reel-to-reel films is a dying art, but Virgil relishes the joy they bring people. Lily Pea phones saying that Shad is dead: He was found drowned in the Pentecost River.

Virgil and Rune go to Shad’s house, where Lily looks after Galen. Shad’s home is constructed from an old shipping container, and the inside is cluttered and messy. Lily shows them the large fishing hook the sheriff’s deputy recovered from Shad’s snagged line. Though the deputy found an empty liquor bottle in Shad’s tackle box, Galen asserts that he died trying to catch a giant sturgeon they had hunted for in the past. Rune’s father was a fisherman, and he occupies Galen discussing the contents of Shad’s tackle box while Virgil speaks privately with Lily. She worries about money and funeral arrangements, and Virgil offers to call someone in Duluth who can help. Lily now must become Galen’s guardian and decide what to do with Shad’s home and property. Virgil thinks the liquor was likely the culprit as “The world always comes for you” (115), but he’s okay with Galen believing the fish story for now.